Dantonio, who has not spoken about the charges since issuing a statement when the players were dismissed from the team in June, said his silence was by design.

“I didn’t want to negate any aspect of that by talking about a left tackle or a quarterback and trivialize what was going on,” he said. “It’s a serious problem and our players have to understand that and be able to grasp that aspect going forward. All of that was by design that we stayed away from the press.”

Joshua J. King, 19, Demetric D. Vance, 20, and Donnie L. Corley Jr., 19, were each charged with third-degree criminal sexual conduct. In a separate incident, a fourth player was charged with sexual misconduct and dismissed from the team in April.

In a statement released at the time of the dismissals, Dantonio said: “Sexual assault has no place in our community, and I want to share my deep concern for the young woman affected, and her family.”

“It’s been challenging, but I think you are defined by how you handle your challenges in your life,” Dantonio said Monday at Big Ten Media Days. “It was left up to me in how we handled it in terms of when I talked about it or how we handled it in large part.”